computer not booting

[bigdan]

im running windows vista on my compaq from 2007, forgotten the exact specs on it.

anyway vista shut off eariler while i was working, i assumed it was for some update it was doing. rare but not the first time its happened and i got two warnings earlier today that it needed to shut down, and was about to. each time i stopped the countdown in time and reset it to one hour, so that's prolly (but not definitely) what happened.

anyway now i cant start vista again. after it automatically reset and was updating / processing whatever it had to do it came back to the logon screen where i choose the user, however the mouse wasnt responding at all. so i shut down (dont seem to have a restart button... do all computers have restart buttons but perhaps hidden somewhere or is it actually possible to not have one???) but still couldnt get it. now it wont even goto the logon screen. it said windows had some problems and gave me the option to start windows normally or do a repair, which was recommended. selected repair, i dunno if it actually did so though, came back to the same screen. i tried starting in safe mode, didnt do so, tried safe + networking, didnt work.

as im writing this i saw i was at some blue screen with a popup asking me to choose a keyboard layout. i selected US but i couldnt use the mouse. it occurs to me this happened earlier as well (like in the last 10 minutes, since the problem started). once ive selected the keyboard layout though nothing happened for a while.

now a popup is there titled "system recovery options", asking me to select which operating system to fix. the field is empty though so i cant select my operating system. it says if you dont see your operating system click load drivers. i did so, now asking "insert the installation media for the device". i assume this is the windows vista cd? i dont have it on me, left it at my sis's place who's out of town. eeeek is there something else i can do?

thanks
dan

 

[KSoD]

There is a Restart button. The Red icon in the lower right hand corner:

Well the only advice i can offer, is to try and use the Vista DVD and use a Restore point.

Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

At step 2 you will see the option to use a Restore Point. Since the setup is not finding your install this may not work.

 

[bigdan]

from that blue screen i mentioned earlier i saw a couple options, one was to restore to an earlier point in windows. but when i selected that it said in order to do that i must type in some really weird command. and it didnt give me a place to type it in.

i googled for a solution for this earlier as well, among other things it said i could use a tool called WinRe. how do i use this though when the computer is not booting up?
also is there a way i can at least backup my imp stuff?

btw the mouse doesnt seem to be working...

 

[KSoD]

You could use a Linux LiveCD like Ubuntu and boot from it and access your drive and get your data off of there. I think you mean WinPE not WinRe.

There is also BartPE as well which you might be able to use.

 

[bigdan]

oh shoot yeah i should've tried that! actually i just gave it in to get professioanally fixed. but wish id tried that just for the learning experience.

naw meant WinRE! if you google vista problems (or whatever i googled earlier) that's what comes up, i dont really know what it is. i think the R was for recovery maybe.

 

[KSoD]

Ahh yes the Windows Recover Environment. That is alright. But the BartPE and that are much better to use.